Contract Details: Dunlap, Bills, Texans, Burns
Let’s catch up on some of the latest contract details from around the league:
- Seahawks DE Carlos Dunlap: Two-years, $13.6MM. This had previously been reported as $16.6MM, but it turns out Seattle got Dunlap back for a few million cheaper than that, as Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle tweets. It’s actually a five-year pact with three years that automatically void for cap spreading purposes. As previously reported, it has $8.5MM in guaranteed money. Dunlap was set to have a $14.1MM cap charge for 2021 before the Seahawks cut him and then re-signed him to this less expensive deal.
- Bills LB Tyler Matakevich: One-year extension. Buffalo gave their special teams ace a one-year extension through the 2022 season, which lowered his 2021 cap number to $2.95MM from $3.7MM, Matthew Fairburn of The Athletic tweets. His base salary for 2021 is now fully guaranteed. He’ll count for $3.25MM against the 2022 cap, but there will only be $750K in dead money if he’s released.
- Texans CB Tavierre Thomas: Two-years, $4MM. We now have details on this contract, as Thomas will be getting $2MM in guaranteed money, Wilson tweets. Not bad for a player who prior to 2020 was mostly a special teams guy. He ended up playing almost 20 percent of the defensive snaps for the Browns last year as they dealt with injuries in their secondary. He got a $1MM signing bonus, a $1MM guaranteed salary for 2021, and a non-guaranteed $1.5MM salary for 2022 with $250K in per game active roster bonuses for each season.
- Bears CB Artie Burns: One-year, $990K. The financial terms on this one were previously not reported, and it turns out the former first-round pick only got the veteran’s minimum from Chicago, Wilson tweets. The 25th pick of the 2016 draft by the Steelers got over $1MM to sign with the Bears last offseason, but then tore his ACL in August before playing a down for the team.
Latest On Tom Brady Knee Injury
When it was revealed in February that Tom Brady was undergoing knee surgery for an injury that would keep him sidelined from team activities until at least June, it understandably raised some eyebrows.
A 43-year-old quarterback getting knee surgery that will knock him out for a handful of months is significant no matter what. But fortunately, it sounds like everything is going well with Brady’s recovery. “I talked to him last week,” Bucs GM Jason Licht said, via Jenna Laine of ESPN.com. “I know things are going well. I don’t want to put an exact timeline on it right now because I don’t want to set expectations one way or the other, but I know that things are going very well.”
The injury also apparently wasn’t out of left field for the team, and the procedure had been planned for a while. Brady had been planning on having the surgery for months, and the news was “not a surprise” to the Bucs, a source told Laine.
Licht also called it a “minor surgical procedure” although it can’t really be that minor if Bruce Arians was saying back in February that he was hopeful Brady could do some 7-on-7 work in June. Obviously if there’s anyone who doesn’t need much offseason time it’s Brady, but this will still be something to monitor as the ageless wonder gets set to turn 44 in August.
NFC West Notes: Fitzgerald, Stafford, Everett
When the Cardinals signed A.J. Green last month, all eyes turned to Larry Fitzgerald and his place on the team. Although the legendary receiver hasn’t made his intentions known just yet, it appears he’s headed in the direction of hanging up his cleats. “Execs anticipate” that Fitzgerald, who is unsigned for 2021, is going to retire, Mike Sando of The Athletic writes. This stops short of being a full-on report, but it certainly sounds like that’s the way things are trending.
With Green now in the fold alongside the returning DeAndre Hopkins and Christian Kirk, the Cardinals’ receiving room would be pretty crowded if Fitz wanted to give it one last go. The surefire future Hall of Famer played in 13 games for Arizona last year, racking up 54 catches for 409 yards and a touchdown. It was easily the lowest output of his decorated 17-year career. We should know more soon, but unfortunately it seems likely we’ve seen the Pittsburgh product play his final down.
Here’s more from around the NFC West on a quiet Sunday afternoon:
- Matthew Stafford was banged up a lot during his last season with the Lions, and he just had a procedure to address one of those lingering injuries. The new Rams quarterback had surgery on the thumb of his throwing hand last month, a source told Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic. Fortunately, Rodrigue reports it was just a simple cleanup and Stafford isn’t expected to miss any real practice time. Stafford said back in February that he had partially torn the UCL in his right thumb. Despite dealing with a slew of significant health issues, he didn’t miss a start last season.
- The Seahawks signed away tight end Gerald Everett from the Rams in free agency, and it turns out a prior poaching played a large role in that. Seattle hired former Rams passing game coordinator Shane Waldron to be their new OC after firing Brian Schottenheimer, and Waldron played a role in delivering Everett. “Shane is a mastermind,” Everett said, via John Boyle of the team’s official site. “He’s very creative, and I can’t wait to see what he’s going to do in Seattle… When Shane went to Seattle, obviously the idea was there, it lingered in my head.” Everett was a second-round pick of Los Angeles in 2017, and although he never put up huge numbers in Rams offenses that had a lot of mouths to feed, he flashed a lot of potential. “Yes, he was a factor in my decision to come to Seattle,” Everett said of Waldron. The Seahawks gave him a one-year, $7MM deal in March.
- In case you missed it, the 49ers are asking for a first-round pick in exchange for Jimmy Garoppolo.
Chargers Owner Dean Spanos’ Sister Attempting To Force Sale
There’s been plenty of NFL ownership drama over the past year, and the Broncos are now no longer the only AFC West team with a power struggle going on. The Chargers have entered the fray, as Nathan Fenno of the Los Angeles Times writes.
A sister of Chargers owner Dean Spanos, Dea Spanos Berberian, has filed a petition in Los Angeles County Court asking a judge to force a sale of the team. Fenno writes that Berberian argues “that mounting debt has imperiled the family’s finances and the only solution is to put the NFL franchise on the market.”
Berberian is a trustee of the family trust alongside Spanos, and she “alleges the trust’s debts and expenses exceed” $353MM. “Every day that passes increases the risks that the charitable beneficiaries and the Spanos family legacy will suffer irreparable financial and reputational damage,” if the team isn’t sold, the petition reads.
According to the court filing this has been going on behind the scenes for quite some time, as Spanos told his siblings in a 2019 letter that he would retain an investment bank at the end of the 2024 season to help sell the team. Berberian is attempting to force a move sooner than that, but either way it sounds like the Spanos family won’t be owning the franchise long-term.
That being said, Spanos and two of his other siblings released a defiant statement in response to this filing, which you can read in full here, denouncing Berberian’s effort.
“For the three of us the Chargers is one of our family’s most important legacies, just as it was for our parents. Unfortunately, our sister Dea seems to have a different and misguided personal agenda. If Dea no longer wishes to be part of this family legacy, the three of us stand ready to purchase her share of the franchise, as our agreements give us the right to do. In the meanwhile, the operations of the Chargers will be entirely unaffected by this matter, which relates only to the 36 percent share of the team that was owned by our parents,” it reads in part.
Spanos is no stranger to controversy, as he became a very polarizing figure among Chargers fans in San Diego after moving the team to Los Angeles a few years ago. This will take months if not years to fully play out, but we’ll keep you posted.
Ravens To Re-Sign L.J. Fort
L.J. Fort isn’t going anywhere. The Ravens will be keeping the inside linebacker in the fold with a new contract, Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic tweets.
Financial terms weren’t immediately released, but Zrebiec reports it’s a one-year deal for Fort. Fort played a significant role in Baltimore’s defense last year, appearing in 14 games and starting eight. He finished with 53 tackles, two passes defended, and two fumble recoveries (one for a touchdown) while playing less than half the snaps in a rotational role.
Fort has had an interesting career path, as he originally entered the league as an UDFA with the Browns back in 2012. He made the team and played in all 16 games for Cleveland as a rookie, then appeared in only one more regular season game after that until 2016.
After bouncing around a few practice squads he eventually found a home with the Steelers. He signed with the Ravens early in the 2019 season, and started eight games for them. He was handed a two-year, $5.5MM extension in November of that year, but at the beginning of 2020 the team declined his 2021 option which made him a free agent this spring.
Washington Signs WR/KR DeAndre Carter
Washington is making an interesting special teams addition. The team has signed receiver/returner DeAndre Carter, they announced on Thursday.
Carter entered the league as an UDFA in 2015 originally with the Ravens, but he didn’t see a regular season NFL field until 2018. After grinding for a few years on the practice squads of teams like the Raiders, Patriots, and 49ers, he finally broke through with the Eagles. He played in seven games for Philly before being waived and claimed by Houston, where he made more of an impact.
In seven games for the Texans that year, he caught 20 passes for 195 yards, while also serving as their kick and punt returner. In 2019 he appeared in all 16 games for them, catching 11 passes for 162 yards while once again serving as the kick and punt returner.
He served the same role for the first nine games of 2020 before getting cut and claimed by the Bears. He played the final month of the season in Chicago returning punts. He’s never returned a kick to the house, but has done some damage. Washington doesn’t have any clear better options currently on the roster, so he’ll presumably slot in as the primary returner for 2021.
Lions To Sign Corn Elder
The Lions are making another addition to their defense. Detroit has agreed to terms with free agent cornerback Corn Elder, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network tweets.
Rapoport writes that it’s a one-year “prove-it-deal,” so it’s presumably for pretty close to the veteran’s minimum. A Miami product, Elder was drafted by the Panthers in the fifth-round back in 2017. He missed his entire rookie season with a knee injury, then played only on special teams as a sophomore. He was waived during final cuts in 2019, and signed to the Giants’ practice squad.
Not too long after that Carolina signed him back off the Giants’ practice squad, and he ended up making real contributions on defense in 2020. Playing as part of a young Panthers secondary, he appeared in all 16 games and started one. He played a hair under 40 percent of the defensive snaps, racking up 40 tackles, three passes defended, and a forced fumble.
Detroit completely remade their secondary this offseason as they kicked off the Dan Campbell era, jettisoning former starters Justin Coleman and Desmond Trufant, so this dart throw can’t hurt.
Minor NFL Transactions: 4/1/21
We’ll keep track of today’s minor moves in this post, so check back later:
Atlanta Falcons:
- Re-signed: DE Steven Means
- Signed: DT Jonathan Bullard
Buccaneers To Pick Up Vita Vea’s Fifth-Year Option
It’s about that time of year where we’ll start to hear a lot of decisions on the fifth-year options of first-round picks from the 2018 draft class, and we got a significant one on Thursday.
The Buccaneers will pick up the fifth-year option on Vita Vea‘s contract, GM Jason Licht said Thursday, Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times tweets. Unlike in previous years, many of these option decisions won’t be no-brainers or formalities. That’s because starting with this cycle, the fifth-year options are now fully guaranteed. They had previously been guaranteed for injury only.
That means teams will be a lot less loose with picking up these fifth-year options, and it also means Vea’s salary for 2022 will become fully guaranteed when they pick it up. That salary will be about $7.64MM for the Bucs. It’s a significant commitment for two years from now, but it’s also still a very good deal compared to what Vea would fetch on the open market.
The defensive tackle was a huge part of Tampa’s defense last year, and was a massive disruptor before going down with a serious ankle injury after five games. Originally believed to be lost for the season, Vea battled his way back and improbably returned for the NFC Championship Game and Super Bowl.
Vea, the 12th overall pick of the 2018 draft, started all 16 games in 2019, finishing with 35 tackles, 2.5 sacks, and three passes defended. He had two sacks in only four-plus games in 2020, and was looking dominant before the injury.
Teams have until May 3rd to make their fifth-year option decisions on 2018 first-rounders.
Dolphins To Sign John Jenkins
The Dolphins already signed Adam Butler to help replace fellow defensive tackle Davon Godchaux after he signed with the Patriots, and now they’re adding another. Miami has agreed to terms with free agent John Jenkins, Adam Beasley of the Miami Herald confirmed on Twitter.
Joe Schad of the Palm Beach Post was first to tweet the news. Financial terms weren’t immediately available, but it’s a one-year deal for Jenkins. The Georgia product was originally drafted by the Saints back in 2013. He started 12 games for New Orleans in 2015, but was released midway through the 2016 season and quickly scooped up by the Seahawks.
After that brief stint with Seattle he signed with the Bears, then the Giants, before landing with the Dolphins in 2019. He appeared in all 16 games that year, starting five and racking up 34 tackles and a sack. He signed back with Chicago last season and played a rotational role. Miami will likely be looking for him to play a similar rotational role on running downs.